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Archive for January, 2012

Monster Trucks

Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged , , , , on January 5, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I cannot believe it.  I will be attending Monster Jam tomorrow evening.  To me, this demonstrates the impact of living in south Jersey.  When my sons first expressed their adoration of Grave Digger, I tried to be calm about it.  It continued to grow.  We have several Grave Digger toys in our home.  Our youngest adores this truck.  Clearly, he was attracted to the name and the skull.  While he may only be six, he has embraced the art of the morbid and macabre.  The attraction to a giant truck named Grave Digger that runs over other vehicles was naturally going to occur.

I cannot as of yet understand the entertainment value of large decorated trucks running over other vehicles.  I can see how my sons would find this fun so I am keeping an open mind.  Perhaps I will love it.  What a lovely way of getting out aggression and frustration.  When I need to do that, I crush an Oreo.  It makes me feel better because I love Oreos.  And I don’t have the benefit of having a monster truck in my driveway that I can roll over stuff with.

Still, when my co-worker read the email about the radio station at work giving away free tickets for Monster Jam, I was on the phone in a heartbeat.  The chance to let my sons experience Grave Digger at no cost to me was too good to pass up.  If the boys hate it, no biggie.  If they love it, I’ll know to prepare for many more evenings spent with the Monster Trucks.  Hey, House likes it.

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Brigs and the first snow

Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged , , on January 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I am so thankful for my 12-year-old diabetic dog.  He has the call of nature a lot and this evening, as I muttered under my breath because he was barking after 10pm, I shoved my feet in my snow boots simply because they were the easiest to put on my feet.  Turns out I chose the proper footwear because Brigs, while needing the outdoors for nature’s call, also sensed the first snow had arrived.

Brigs has loved the snow since he was a puppy.  As a lab, one would expect him to love water, but he never has.  But snow…snow…Brigs loves snow.  And tonight we shared the first snow of 2012.  I will love the memory of him walking around tonight, face up to the sky, as the snowflakes fell on his big old body.  Happy first snow, puppy.

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Rotten bananas

Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged , , , , , , on January 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Bananas are about the best fruit in the world.  When ripe, we use them in so many ways: sliced on top of cereal, banana split sundae, funky monkey bread, as a delicious stand-alone fruit snack.  This can be said of many fruits.  But I ask you this: how many fruits do we get equally excited about when they are just about rotten?

Almost-rotten bananas make lovely banana bread…or as I recently snacked on courtesy of a friend at work…lovely banana chocolate chip cookies.  Not a lot of things have a second life upon rotting.

What other things in life get a second life?  We all love to donate our goods to various charities because it’s the socially acceptable thing to do.  Reuse, recycle.  Find another use for an item.  I feel though as if our society is missing the bigger picture.  We didn’t waste as much before.  We were more resourceful.  Now we recycle yet so many things have become disposable.

Imagine if we went fully back to the idea of local.  A dairy farm in every area.  Reusable glass bottles versus the plastic gallon jugs.  Local farms, butchers, small-town doctors.  I feel like other countries get this idea and haven’t over-expanded as we have.  We are so hung up on status, stuff, and schedules.  I have less and less interest in this type of existence.

Yet at the same time I’m planning to take my sons to the store tomorrow so they can get Pokemon cards.  Where is the balance?  How do I keep my sons’ priorities balanced?  How do I keep my own priorities balanced?  Where is the place between ripe and rotten?

I’d love to stumble upon the answers but I am not that smart.  All I can do is remember that one is enough for anyone and let that guide the choices I make regarding the material things in life.  Little by little I whittle down the “stuff” we have placing the focus on needs and a few wants.  It’s tough to keep that focus.  The boys float from craze to craze, fad to fad, ripe banana to rotten banana.

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